we met again. I’ve tried so hard to believe that it was enough, and I suppose that for your purposes it
‘Becky, don’t-’
‘Why not? It’s the truth. If you want to impregnate a woman so that you can flaunt her fertility to the world, then you don’t need love or emotional connection. Cold, heartless lust will do the job just as well, won’t it, Luca?’
‘Stop it, Becky,’ he said savagely.
‘Sure, I’ll stop it. I’ve made my point. Sex isn’t enough, even when it’s as good as ours. But it’s all we have. Perhaps it’s all we ever had.’
‘Still giving me orders. Still trying to arrange everyone like pawns on your chess board. Don’t worry. You’ll never have to hear me say anything again.
‘Go away, Luca. Leave the Allingham, sell your shares, go back to Italy, and tell yourself that you’re well rid of that awkward woman who wouldn’t fall into line. Find a woman you can be honest with-if you can take the risk.’
She was gone while he was still too stunned to speak. The slam of the door was a deliberate act of contempt.
The phone rang. It was Sonia, with a mountain of problems that had sprung up the moment he left Italy. He suppressed the impulse to slam down the telephone and pursue Rebecca, and was glad, afterwards. In her present mood it would have been the worst thing he could have done.
Despite her words his mind persisted on the old fixed track. He had handled it badly. The best thing was to give her time to cool down, then they would talk. She would see things his way. It was all a question of how you handled it.
He worked until late in the evening, talking to Sonia, sending emails. By the time he logged off the internet he was about half a million richer than he had been at the start.
He was wondering if enough time had passed for him to call her when he heard a knock on his door. He opened it, only half believing that it could be her. But it was.
She gave him a half-smile, as though considering whether to tell him a secret.
‘May I come in?’
‘Of course.’ He stood back, trying to decipher her mood. ‘Does this mean you’re going to let me explain?’
‘No, let’s not bother. We both know the score.’ She shrugged and turned to him, laughing. ‘We were keeping score in different ways, that’s all.’
He grinned. ‘We can put that right.’
The phone rang. He muttered something under his breath as he snatched it up. ‘Sonia, not now-’
‘Finish what you have to do,’ Rebecca said lightly. ‘There’s no hurry.’
But he did hurry, because there was a note in her voice that was unfamiliar to him and he wanted to know more. He had no idea what she was up to, but he was willing to find out.
He disposed of the call fast, and turned to find that Rebecca had closed all the curtains. She was standing there, arms folded across the buttoned jacket of her trouser suit, smiling at him in a way that could have only one meaning.
He took her into his arms, feeling her lean towards him. As her arms went around his neck he began to unbutton her jacket and immediately realised that she wore nothing underneath.
He had never before known her so bold and daring, and accepted the implied invitation with eagerness.
When she was naked she took his hand and led him to bed, falling onto it and opening her arms. As soon as he went into them she closed them around him with a movement that was almost as predatory as his own.
Their times together had given her a new confidence, and now she could guide and even direct him, urging him on to what pleased her. Her own caresses were almost casual in their skill, arrogant in their assumption that power lay with her, and she could please him at will. She succeeded beyond his wildest expectations.
Rebecca had an eerie sensation of being two people. One of them was floating above all this, looking down at the woman who seemed so immersed in making passionate love with this man, and who was actually detached from him, from everything that was happening, and-terrifyingly-from herself.
And she was cold, so cold that it was a wonder that the man didn’t turn to ice in her arms.
Luca caught a glimpse of her eyes and thought he detected a look of desperation. Then it was gone and all he knew was that she was surging against him, crying incoherently with pleasure.
His own pleasure was shattering, driven to new heights by her responsiveness, and by the skills that had lain, hitherto unsuspected, in her slim body. He guessed that she was not making love, but making sex, and it left him gasping and close to exhaustion.
The end came when she decided. When she pushed him gently away from her he lay, his head turned on the pillow, unwilling to take his eyes from her.
She drew herself up in bed and sat there like a shameless nymph, letting him appreciate her glorious nakedness. She was laughing.
‘That was good,’ she said.
Failing to pick up the echo, he said, ‘Yes, it was.’
His cellphone rang. He grabbed for it, switched it off and tossed it away onto the floor. That made her laugh even more.
‘What is it?’ he asked, laughing with her but not knowing why.
‘Nothing, just a private joke.’
‘So tell me.’
‘Leave me my secrets.’
‘When will you tell me?’
She put her hands behind her head and lay back on the pillow. ‘You’ll know in time,’ she said. ‘Go to sleep.’
He did so, letting himself drift away in a blissful haze, until he fell into the deep sleep of total physical contentment.
Rebecca watched him, the laughter gone from her face. Now the look of desperation he’d briefly glimpsed was back in her eyes, and when her tears began to fall she did not wipe them away.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LUCA awoke with only one thought. He had won. Again. As always.
She had tried to leave him and couldn’t. She belonged to him again, just as he’d planned, and now there was nothing standing in the way of their future together.
He turned over, reaching for her, wanting to share warmth with her, to see in her eyes his own knowledge that they belonged together.
She wasn’t there.
He listened for the sound of the shower, but there was only silence from the bathroom. Her clothes were gone. She was gone.
He dialled her room, but the ringing went unanswered.
No matter. She’d gone out for a walk, to contemplate what had happened between them. She was planning for their future. He told himself this while his mind frantically tried to shut out his fears.
He called her cellphone, but it was switched off. Next he tried Nigel Haleworth, the hotel manager, attempting to make his voice sound casual.
‘Nigel, sorry to call so early, but I need to contact Mrs Hanley. She doesn’t seem to be in her room. Do you know when she’ll be back?’
‘Funny you should ask that,’ came Nigel’s bluff voice. ‘I’ve just had her on the line, saying she won’t be back.’
